May 21, 2015

The Obama administration wants to see more kids with disabilities — no matter how significant — participating in classrooms alongside their typically-developing peers.

The U.S. Departments of Education and Health and Human Services are jointly seeking public comment this week on a draft policy statement encouraging greater inclusion for young children with disabilities.

Whether you participate in a public or private event to mark Global Accessibility Awareness Day, on May 21, we encourage designers, developers, usability professionals, and everyone else to take an hour to experience first-hand the impact of digital accessibility (or lack there of).

For decades, frustrated parents and teachers have barked at fidgety children with ADHD to “Sit still and concentrate!”

But new research conducted at UCF shows that if you want ADHD kids to learn, you have to let them squirm. The foot-tapping, leg-swinging and chair-scooting movements of children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder are actually vital to how they remember information and work out complex cognitive tasks, according to a study published in an early online release of the Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology.

The findings show the longtime prevailing methods for helping children with ADHD may be misguided.

“The typical interventions target reducing hyperactivity. It’s exactly the opposite of what we should be doing for a majority of children with ADHD,” said one of the study’s authors, Mark Rapport, head of the Children’s Learning Clinic at the University of Central Florida. “The message isn’t ‘Let them run around the room,’ but you need to be able to facilitate their movement so they can maintain the level of alertness necessary for cognitive activities.”